Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, in which a rotating duo of Multiversity staffers take a look at two stories contained in each installment of Viz Media’s Weekly Shonen Jump. For the uninitiated, Weekly Shonen Jump is an anthology that delivers more than 200 pages of manga of all varieties. We hope that you’ll join us in exploring the world of Weekly Shonen Jump each week. If you are unfamiliar, you can read sample chapters and subscribe at Viz.com.
This week, Zach and Vince check in with “Food Wars” and “ne0:lation.” If you have any thoughts on these titles, or “My Hero Academia,” “Dr. Stone,” “Black Clover,” “One Piece,” “Blue Exorcist,” “The Promised Neverland,” “Chainsaw Man,” “World Trigger,” “Seraph at the End,” or “We Never Learn” let us know in the comments!
Food Wars! Chapter 291
Written by Yuto Tsukuda
Illustrated by Shun Saeki
Contributions by Yuki Morisaki
Reviewed by Zach Wilkerson
Despite its culinary-centric premise, “Food Wars!” often gets compared to other shonen fighting manga due to its reliance on rivalries and the tournament style shokugeki. With the “Blue” tournament in full swing, the series has taken that a step further and gone full-on professional wrestling.
This chapter continues from last week’s introduction of a chainsaw wielding dominatrix, now identified as Sarge, short for “Sergeant,” of course. She’s follow by a group of three Noir combatants that would feel quite comfortable in Batman’s rogue gallery. Marcanda the juggling clown is just twisted enough to pass for a Joker, and Claude Ville slightly evokes the “Arkham” video game version of the Scarecrow. The “Noir” arc has allowed Shun Saeki to flex his creative muscle, as the designs for these characters are more fantastical than even the most flamboyant Totsuki student.
“Food Wars!” has always played fast and loose with reality when crafting some of its more outlandish characters and dishes, but with these Noir chefs the suspension of disbelief is push to the breaking point. Each Noir featured has their own unique gimmick. Sarge uses a chainsaw carving knife that automatically infuses her dishes with spices, while Marcanda’s bowls combine to form ball with its own heating element, cooking his dish as he juggles. These opponents are cartoonish in a way that few “Food Wars!” antagonists have approached.
While wrestlers have signature moves, this chapter introduces specialty dishes, “a dish so creative…only a certain chef could make it.” I’m a little spotty on my “Food Wars!” lore, but it’s somewhat difficult to believe that it’s taken nearly 300 chapters to get to the concept of a chef’s signature dish. Nevertheless, the idea is certainly presented as if it’s new information to both the reader and contestants. In this case, Soma must craft a specialty dish using beef. The plot is tracking for Soma to the final round of this tournament, so the tension is not quite as high as, say, the recent “Central” arc. However, the chapter does set up an interesting challenge for Soma and company, thanks to the absurd nature of the opponent gimmicks.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – A particularly goofy chapter of “Food Wars!” that remains fun even as the tension dips.
ne0:lation – Process 1: Evil Wizard
Story by Tomohide Hirao
Illustrated by Mizuki Yoda
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
Weekly Shonen Jump’s new Jump Start manga “ne0:lation” begins the way most techno-centric shonen stories begin: with an absolutely incomprehensible title and a plucky, cocksure central character who can accomplish anything with a few keystrokes of his laptop. But right away the series starts to differentiate itself from the pack, because that central character (“ne0”) self-identifies as an evil wizard. He’s famous for being a super genius, and people are learning to fear his ability to quickly ruin their lives Mr. Robot-style through the different ways they engage with technology. Is he really evil? Nah. He’s more like a Robin Hood or Oliver Queen figure, pushing the limits of heroism to ruin the lives of the criminally wealthy or amoral. I’m not sure the idea that he’s “evil” entirely works, though he takes more than his share of exaggerated pleasure from “watching the bad guys cry”, to use his own words. Everyone gets basically what they deserve in this first chapter of “ne0:lation”, even if he does go farther than he has to against the bad guys. I won’t spoil what he does to the main villains of the chapter, but let’s just say they won’t be seeing the outside of a prison cell for a while. Maybe in future chapters ne0 will push the limits even more and earn our questioning as to whether he can be called evil or not, but for now he’s basically on the right side of things.
Continued belowAnother welcome aspect of the story is the heart at the center. The titular character’s life butts up against a brother and sister who have lost their parents and owe an insurmountable debt that has been passed down to them. We’ve seen this story before (think a more modern version of how Gin Tama begins), but the extra lengths Tomohide Hirao goes to show how this financial struggle has crippled the independence, happiness and healthy development of the siblings really works to create empathy. Mizuki Yoda‘s art, too, does some heavy lifting in this arena. The struggle bears out in the art, and the brother’s gratitude for his new hacker friend is a satisfying rallying point for the series in its early stages. The emotions are big and bright in this one. On top of that, the characters are handsomely drawn and some of the design work is awful cute, particularly in the sister’s Coney-style hot dog stand, one of the family’s only sources of happiness at this point.
It’s not an earth-shattering series, but it is certainly welcome as a Jump Start that hopefully catches on and becomes something bigger. The story is tight, energetic, and thoroughly modern (one bit in the chapter references the exploding Samsung phones from a couple of years ago to great effect). The final product is a story we’ve kind of seen before but with characters worth rooting for.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – “ne0:lation” is off to a strong start, thanks to high emotion and a commitment to modernity.
